The Great Gatsby: The Movie Might Just be as Good as the Novel

by Benita Kamikazi

The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925 and was set in 1922. This was a period where there was excessive drinking, partying, and people’s morals flew out the window because of the booming economy. In 2013, Moulin Rouge’s director Baz Luhrmann, directed The Great Gatsby movie that starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Carey Mulligan. The movie that is also set in 1922 has Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) narrating his life story about how he met Jay Gatsby, Jay’s love for Daisy Buchannan, and chasing the American dream. Long Island is divided according to old and new money; West Egg and East Egg. Nick lives in West Egg and is the neighbor of a mysterious man who throws lavish parties every weekend. Everyone in New York attends these parties without any invitation. However, the only exception is Nick, until one day an invitation to Jay Gatsby’s party arrives at his house. Once at these parties, Nick becomes enchanted by the extravagant life and discovers that not one person at these parties has ever met Gatsby. Nick eventually meets Gatsby and is drawn by his charisma and crazy world.

The soundtrack of this movie is what made me love The Great Gatsby even more because I love the concept of having a 1920s scene with flappers alongside 21st century music in it. There is something almost nostalgic about listening to Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey and seeing Jay with Daisy in the Jazz era. We grew up listening to songs like Amy Winehouse’s classic Back to Black and Beyoncé’s Crazy in Love which is why it made the movie familiar to the audience. It will be interesting for hip hop lovers to hear Jay Z, Kanye West, and Andre 3000 because of the juxtaposition of the fact that there was no hip hop in 1922.
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One can find The Great Gatsby on Amazon video or on iTunes, and I recommend this movie especially to teenagers because they can learn about a classic book and still enjoy great music. 

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